Does A Course in Miracles Teach That I Desire a Holy Relationship in Order to Awaken?

I do want to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single the main book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you'll need an added specific person to be able to awaken. Therefore, I do believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could possibly be the partnership that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I to them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need another to help you awaken?

I appreciate your own time so much and thank you for the help if you ask me and others. I thank you and I thank God for you. Namaste.

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the openness and your willingness to check deeply at what's underneath these topics and issues. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the problem (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they're brought together, only One remains.

Your body and the entire world are usually the focus of ego's perspective, for this seeks to create real problems and struggles on earth and to prevent the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the item of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is possible to create an identity which God did not create acim. The ego is this identity problem and it absolutely was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it seemed to arise. This 1 problem could possibly be described being an authority problem or a confusion in who's mcdougal of Reality. Your brain that believes in the truth of the time-space cosmos has a get a grip on issue, for this believes that it can produce itself. This ego mind also thinks it is in competition with God, although this really is pushed out of conscious awareness. This unconscious ego thought system is exposed in the A Course in Miracles Workbook lessons, and Lesson 13 contains a fantastic example of the unveiling:

"A meaningless world engenders fear because I do believe I'm in competition with God."

This is the beginning of training your head to forgive, for the focus is brought back to your head, back once again to thinking, and taken away from your body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are samples of projection, of seeing the problem where it is not: in the world. Your brain cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, so this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this kind of belief entails is then projected to your body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or your body, is an endeavor to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that the past can only be forgiven or released or regarded as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.

The same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to repair or change a person or a self-image. Personal relationships may seem to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the private perspective and thus is always on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is really a decision. The ego is really a decision. Atonement is the decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is the decision to think that your head could be separate from God. Once your head believed that it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, because it believed it'd discarded the Kingdom of Heaven. The entire world was made up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on the decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world isn't Identity. This world is definitely an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your head constantly, "This world isn't your Home. This world isn't your Identity. This world isn't real." While the mind is split it is hearing another voice (the ego) that's saying: "You've done it. You've separated from God. You'd better make the very best of it and find something of the entire world to identify with. You can never go back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind appears to be identified with your body, with family, with environments that appear to surround it (i.e., I'm an American, Japanese, I'm male, I'm female, I'm from a rich family, from a poor family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) All of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are typical part of the construction. Your brain is extremely shaky about this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it seems like other persons give the small me reality and importance (i.e., you're my son, my daughter, you're my boss, you're a loving father, etc.) and all the different issues that these images seem to be telling this little me seem to be really important. Praise thus seems very important (i.e., you're a person and you're a great one!).

Praise and acceptance from others SEEM to stabilize this very shaky thing (i.e., you're a good lover, you're a good provider, you're great with the children, you have an excellent intellect, you have this kind of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a good team-player, on and on). This facet of the self-concept says that you're a person and you have most of these positive attributes that actually allow you to a valuable and worthy person, which make you stand out above the crowd. You're not merely anyone—you're somebody special. The flip side is criticism, which directly reflects the shaky sense of self. Criticism could be: you're never as great as you think you're, you're not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—everything that are taken as insults to the private self-concept). That's the flip side of the strokes. To the ego self-concept that believes both parties (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a good threat, for the Holy Spirit leads to the experience of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.

When the criticism seems in the future, the ego attempts a substitution. It thinks, "I don't need this. I'll go elsewhere and start other relationships with people who is able to appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I'll avoid those negative influences on earth and those negative people. I'll find another person or join an organization where people are like-minded and neglect the remaining portion of the world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an endeavor to keep an expression of specialness, an expression of separation, an expression of individuality (a private mind with private thoughts). Those attempts are special love relationships. They appear to reinforce worth and value and to validate personhood. And they give you a false witness for clinging to the ego as identity. To the ego, past associations serve to offer personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for these were made by the ego to deny the reality of God's Love.

Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and posseses an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. While the ego's believed relationships will seem to be specific, yet every one will present a chance to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness could be the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches in A Course in Miracles:

"Whenever you meet anyone, remember it is really a holy encounter. As you see him you might find yourself. As you treat him you'll treat yourself. As you consider him you'll consider yourself. Remember this, for in him you will see yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they're given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I'm always there with you, in remembrance of you.